Sunday, October 26, 2008

Barack and Baklava in Istanbul

I just found out today that Turkey recently passed a law to block access to Blogger and was a bit surprised given that I've always heard that this was one of the most democratic nations in the Middle East/Europe! Anyway I ended up flying from Athens to London and then back down to Istanbul because it was cheaper than flying from Greece. Go figure. I had a 3 hour layover in Paris so I decided to take the 45 minute train into town for a quick dinner at, you guessed it, an Indian restaurant! The whole area was full of Indian restaurants so I figured I was safe. I had an excellent samosa, curry, and naan (although it still was not as good as my friend Ravi's mom's back in Hong Kong!) The owner saw that I was reading "The Audacity of Hope" by Barack Obama and he stated matter of factly that he thought he would get assasinated within a year. I was quite distressed by this comment and told him if that happened I'd move to Bulgaria. On my flight from Paris to Istanbul I met Jack, an Istanbul native and we chatted quite a bit about politics, the differences between Western culture and "Eastern" ideologies and why American culture is everywhere in the world. Neither of us had any clear answers but it > was refreshing to question and discuss our differences in a meaningful dialogue without any animosity whatsoever. We exchanged emails and phone numbers and decided to meet later on the week. I arrived late into Istanbul so transportation options were limited to airport shuttles and taxis. Just like LA... Anyway I ended up taking the shuttle since it was more cost efficient. I followed the guy to an unmarked car and then I started to get that weird this-may-not-be-such-a-good-idea feeling. It didnt help that there was another guy who came along with me who insisted, rather politely actually, that I sit in the front. He kindly introduced himself to me and said his name was Abdul from Saudi Arabia, currently living in Holland. Of course the subject of poltics came up again completing the trifecta for the day. Seems as though the whole world is more interested in the outcome of the US election than the average American. I told him at the very least if Obama wins it would make my life just a little less complicated while I continue my travels. He thought Obama wouldn't win because of the color of his skin and I told him if he doesn't win I'm moving to Bulgaria. At this point, given I had just finished his book on the plane, I decided to give it to him. He was very appreciative and thanked me profusely. I would like to think that this small token would give him a better understanding of Obama and how he's captured the hearts and minds of the rest of the world, America, and registered Republicans like myself. Sorry McCain, just as Colin Powell stated, your choice of Palin cost you my consideration. I mean I know she's a hot momma and all but the thought of her in the White House scares the crap outta me. Vladimir Putin, Hugo Chavez, and Kim Jong Il will just posterize her! Excuse the poltics (this is a travel blog, after all!) but I have to mention it given my experiences so far with what the rest of the world has been telling me during the last few months. Anyway..... Istanbul is an amazing and beautiful city. I can't tell you in words how lasting an impression I have after having dinner the first night, outside under the moon, with the cool Marmaran sea breeze blowing gently with the "izam" overheard in the background. The "izam" is the Islamic call to prayer and it occurs five times per day. Here's a video I took: The second day I went wandering around town in the less touristy part of town. I saw a baklava joint just packed with people (ding ding we have a winner, winner chicken dinner!) Turns out this place is the most famous baklava place in Istanbul and is also the first shop opened. http://www.karakoygulluoglu.com/ It was an absolute delight that I just ran into this place. I sat next to Ferhat, who was chomping down on about ten pieces of chocolate baklava. He said he loves eating it (really?) and does so at least three times a week. The place was so good I decided to go back again after dinner. This time I brought a couple I met at the hostel-- Chris from Scotland and Kadri from Estonia who are motorcycling from Scotland to Australia and who also have never tried baklava. Ever. http://www.thewonderfulwandertooz.wordpress.com/ (and you thought MY blog address was long.. Take that Mike, Greg and Louise!) The cool thing about going back the second time in one day is that I saw the same cashier from earlier in the day. He brought out the owner, Mustafa, and we took a picture. I was happy for several reasons that night. First, that I had three more pieces of baklava in my stomach. Secondly, that I deflowered two baklava virgins. Lastly, how often do you get to meet a guy named Mustafa, much less one who is the owner of the first baklava shop in Istanbul? Dr. Evil would be proud...

Friday, October 17, 2008

Sunsets in Santorini, and my personal financial "crisis"

Arrived into Perissa, Santorini, and the whole beach village was practically empty! I had the whole island to myself, I thought! It was a nice break too, because I have trying pretty hard (yeah right) to get away from the party/hostel scene. It was a good place to collect some thoughts and just have some solid Daniel time. I even had my own room all to myself!

I ran into Yael from Israel, who was my bunkmate back in Athens, at an internet cafe in Santorini. It wasn't really a surprise to see her, but I felt bad because I forgot her name and she remembered mine.... *smack forehead* Anyway, she was looking to get out of the Santorini as soon as possible because, as she stated, it was completely empty. Interesting, I thought, because whenever people go to beach resorts and find ten million people on the beach, that's usually not a good thing.

Whatever, I headed to an empty restaurant and met a couple of Kiwis who had just been to Egypt. Given that I was planning to go there, they gave me a few good recommendations and tips, as well as the name of the tour group they had joined. I have been hesitant about joining any tour groups, as I have been able to manage without them for the past five months. The idea of waking up at 7am in the morning to be shuttled around from one site to another just to snap a few pictures here and there, and eat at places that are getting kickbacks from the operators just never really floated my boat. But Heidi and Courtney said that their tour capped out at 12 people, and used local transportation most of the time. Food was mostly on your own. So, I think a place like Egypt may be the only place where it might make sense, given the sheer number of places to visit, as well as the amount of information and history to digest. I am sure that English may pose to be a slight language barrier as well.

As far as my personal financial "crisis" suffice it to say that I left my ATM card in the teller AGAIN (I wonder, am I really a blond inside?) and Etrade subsequently froze my savings account-- of which I use to pay all my bills and extract cash. I won't go into the ghastly details of the horrible and completely unprofessional service that Etrade has so far exhibited, but suffice it to say that I will be closing my account with them when I have the time and access to do so. I mean, who outsources their "Security and Fraud" call center to the Philippines and staffs them with people who can barely understand, much less speak English??!! Seriously. Short the stock if you can! Oh wait, you can't do that anymore.... But thank you Auntie Bev and Dad for extending a much needed line of credit to a subprime borrower like me in the meantime!!

Anyway, as Etrade instructed me to do, they said I needed to get a copy of my passport notarized and MAILED to the US. I spent a good morning trying to do just that:
10am: Head into the town of Fira, ask a few locals around where to get something notarized. One lady suggested I go to the bank-- made plenty of sense, I thought.
10:15am: Get into Eurobank, Greece's largest bank, and ask the kind lady if she can notarize a copy of my passport. She says, yes, just wait here in line and we'll take care of everything. "Sweet," I thought. This was going to be a lot easier than I'd imagined...
10:45am: Get to the teller and she tells me that the notary service is only for customers. After pleading with her and trying to offer to pay, and using what little Greek charm I had, I was promptly denied.
10:50am: Walk into grocery store, ask the local clerk where I may be able to get something notarized. She gave me a blank stare. I gave her one back. Standoff ensues. A tumbleweed rolls in between us. Nothing happens, I leave.
11am: Walk into photocopy shop, ask the guy same thing, he mentions I could try the bank down the street.... uhhh... I say "Epharisto," (Thank you) and march on.
11:15am: Walk into the post office, and a relatively helpful employee suggested I try the police station.
12pm: Arrive at the police station, ask the cop if he can notarize a copy of my passport, and he says yes, but only if you're a Greek citizen. Apparently, they can't notarize anything in English! He said the only way was to get it notarized by the US Consulate, and guess what, there wasn't one in Santorini. I'd have to go back to Athens............ At this point I was getting pretty frustrated at Etrade, needless to say. But at least I knew that I exercised all the options available to me in Santorini.

Many of you know that I always like to say that things could always be worse. I must have told myself this at least every other minute that morning, trying to keep me sane. One minute, I'd think, "Well, I could be an armless fool..." Then, "I could also be legless, wheeling around in a wheelchair..." Then, "I could be a paraplegic vegetable drooling all over myself." Then I'd get pissed at Etrade again. And, of course, back to the armless, legless, vegetable thoughts.

Exasperated, but relatively positive, I went to the supermarket where I had that staredown with the clerk, and bought a loaf of bread, ham, tzakitzi, a bag of Doritos and a bottle of water. After lunch, I mosied on over to a beach I saw on a map and decided that it would be a good place to watch the sunset over the sea. I walked down and found a completely empty beach, with just one sunchair available, as if it was waiting for me. Coincidentally, my iPod was playing, "Today," by the Smashing Pumpkins.... and the lyrics for those of you who don't know, basically say, "Today's the greatest..." Indeed, everything is, despite the minor setback I've encountered.
From Santorini

I went back to the hostel that night, where I ended up chatting with Michael, the owner of the joint. I mentioned to him that I may one day start a hostel in Mammoth, and it turns out he's an avid skier and a fisher! I showed him Mammoth Lakes using Google Maps' satellite feature and he was completely enthralled with all the lakes and how big the mountain was. I had him type in Perissa, Greece, and lo and behold, he saw satellite images of his own hostel! In my mind, I was just thinking, who hasn't heard of Google Maps? Apparently, the sleepy beach town of Perissa, Santorini...

Monday, October 13, 2008

From the fall of the Berlin Wall to the birthplace of democracy in Greece

It was an interesting juxtaposition to go from where communism fell in Berlin, to the birthplace of modern democracy in Greece. Again, I didn't plan it this way, but just a unique way to contrast and compare my travel experience.

Speaking of Germany, I met a group of German tourists at the Acropolis (site of the Parthenon) who approached me and asked me if I could take a picture of them. I asked them if there were "Deutsch" and of course they answered "Ja." When I was about to take their picture, I decided to use what little German I learned during my time there so instead of counting "one, two, three, smile," I said "Zwei gosse bier bitter!" (Two large beers, please!) This elicited a hearty German laugh. They wanted me to take another picture, so this time I said, "Ein, zwei, drei, hakke zein!" (One, two, three, I'm drunk!) Again, a hearty laugh and applause from the group of about 30. Made my day....I wish my friend Mike was with me, his key phrase throughout Oktoberfest was "I'm the mayor of this town!" I recalled something Louise from Denmark told me when she spoke Chinese to us, which is that all you need to know are just a few key phrases in every language to endear yourself exponentially.

On my way back from this German encounter in Athens, I was approached by a Spanish guy-- he asked me, "Hablas espanol?" For a split second, I wondered to myself why in the world would he ask me, an Asian guy in the middle of Greece, out of the crowd of other tourists, if I spoke Spanish? The funny thing is, I replied, "Si!" We proceeded to chat a bit about yadda yadda yadda and when I headed back I thought what an oddly international day it's been... I spoke English, German, Spanish, and of course, a little Greek. Now if I can just find some Chinese tourists....


Monday, October 6, 2008

Berlin-- the fall of Communism...and the fall of Capitalism??

As a political science major, the fall of the Berlin Wall, and consequently, the fall of communism, was of major interest to me. The timing of being in Berlin during the anniversary of the reunification served as an interesting background to the ongoing financial crisis and the supposed fall of capitalism.

When I graduated from college, I was a total believer in free markets and considered myself a total capitalist. The welfare state, 35-hour workweeks, state and government sponsored safety nets and 6-week vacations were an outdated way of running an economy, I thought. When I was studying abroad in Spain back in 1997, due to a 18% unemployment rate, I was getting my haircut by a 29-year old chemical engineer who couldn't get a job, further confirming my bias towards all things capitalist. And to top it all off, everything is closed on Sundays! Back then, I thought, closing shop on Sunday represented a lost opportunity to MAKE MONEY. After travelling through Europe over the past few months, and consequently, spending many lazy Sunday afternoons at the park, in the plaza, in the house with friends, I've realized that life isn't that bad when things are closed on Sundays. It's just good to have a day to do nothing but relax and strengthen your relationships. How many times have we all been unable to meet up with friends because we had to run errands on the weekends? If we all ran them on Saturdays, we'd have nothing to do but relax and meet up with friends on Sundays!

Don't get me wrong, I'm not totally forsaking my capitalist roots, but given my experience so far in Europe amidst the global meltdown of our financial markets, I think it's not such a bad thing to reevaluate how free and open our markets should be-- much less having anything open on Sundays.

Saturday, October 4, 2008

Hamburgers in Hamburg, and Chasing Down Neo-Nazis around Krelingen

Another thing I got to cross of my list of things to do, "Having a hamburger in Hamburg!

Hamburg was cool... very different than the south of Germany. Some of the buildings kind of look Danish, and not surprisingly, is less than 200 kilometers away from the border. On my way to the train station, I was walking around and I felt like I stepped on big wad of gum and looked down to see my shoe had completely grown a huge fat tumor along the sole. I have no idea how this happened and quite frankly was worried that she was going to blow any minute. The last thing I needed was to go to the doctors office and try to explain how my my right foot was blown off by a Nike Air Max shoe.

From Hamburg and Greece


Thankfully there was a Nike store right next to the train station and I figured that would be a good place to either have them replace it at no charge (long shot) or buy a new pair. Julia, the Nike Store employee, as well as the rest of the staff were quite confused as to how this could happen. They weren't able to give me a new pair, but they did throw in a pair of (much needed) socks alongside my new pair of Air Force Ones. Turns out Julie is a shoe fanatic as well, and has even flown to New York for the latest Nikes! Women and shoes....go figure!

From Hamburg and Greece


I met Rebekka back in Tallinn and through a couple of emails, I made my way over to her village, Krelinger, population 700. Her dad is from Krelingen, and her mom is from the next village over. Turns out she is a member of the "antifa," an organization (sometimes violent) whose objective is to rid the country and the world of fascism and neo-nazis. I had no idea of the level of her deep involvement, because the next day we went to an event where there may have been neo-nazis. She asked me if I wanted to go, and I said, why not, I've always wanted to punch a neo-nazi in Krelingen! For better or worse, the neo-nazis didn't show up, so my karate skills were not necessary....

The following day was a holiday, to celebrate the reunification of Germany. Rebekka took me to Bergen, a concentration camp. Normally, I wouldn't really go to places like that (I skipped Auschwitz when I was in Krakow) but I thought to myself that since Rebekka works there as a tour guide, I might as well take advantage of her knowledge. It was a pretty depressing day, but all in all, a good time to reflect on WWII and the Holocaust.